Prof. O’Connell testifies at Congressional hearing on drones

Published: April 29, 2010

Mary Ellen O’Connell, the University of Notre Dame’s Robert and Marion Short Professor of Law and Research Professor of International Dispute Resolution at the Kroc Institute, testified at a hearing before the U.S. House Subcommittee on National Security and Foreign Affairs on Wednesday, April 28, 2010.
O’Connell disagrees with the Obama administration’s rationale for the use of drone strikes to target enemy combatants.

“Restricting drones to the battlefield is the most important single rule governing their use,” O’Connell told the House Subcommittee. “Yet, the United States is failing to follow it more often than not. At the very time we are trying to win hearts and minds to respect the rule of law, we are ourselves failing to respect a very basic rule: remote weapons systems belong on the battlefield.”

O’Connell is an expert on international legal regulation of the use of force. She chairs the International Law Association’s Committee on the Use of Force, and is the author of the leading American law school casebook on the subject: International Law and the Use of Force, Cases and Materials (Foundation 2d ed. 2009).
O’Connell was recently named vice president of the American Society of International Law, the leading organization of its kind in the world. She is also a member of the Germany Society of International Law and the International Institute for Humanitarian Law.